Department of Defence Request for In-House Digitisation Service

This Call for Tender is for the Department of Defence who has a Military Service Pensions Project (MSPP), which is tasked with the processing the material and files in the Military Service (1916-1923) Pensions Collection (MSPC) for release to the public through the Military Archives. A database and digital images from the files of veterans who applied for pensions, allowances or medals relating to their military service during the period are being released online in tranches. The Project is located at Cathal Brugha Barracks, Rathmines, Dublin 6 D06RX00. A Scan Once for All Purposes (SOAP) methodology has been implemented since 2010 in order to ensure the preservation of material of enduring archival value, whether physical or digital. MSPC material presents a wide range of 20th century paper, including writing paper, copy typing paper, tracing paper, coloured paper, printed forms, photographs and some limited newspaper cuttings. Material size can vary from the very small note to double foolscap (A3). A wide range of coloured inks, typing inks, handwritten letters in ink and pencil and some ink and paper stamps are used. The MSP Project’s main objective, as regards to digitisation, is to preserve digitised assets as Preservation Masters (PM), while also creating surrogates fit for online access. It is thus a mandatory requirement that each original scanned item must be reproduced as a set of two (2) digital images, as follows: a. Files are digitised at 300dpi, in TIF format to create an uncompressed Preservation Master (PM). The Project endeavours to minimise any intervention to the Preservation Masters to ensure archival integrity. b. A watermarked multipage PDF file (derived from the TIF file) for each physical file to serve as surrogate for online access. Please note that: • tenderers must associate themselves with this Competition in order to access the tender documents, ask and receive clarifications and submit a tender response. This can only be done via login. • all responses must be submitted in a zipped file format. • the Contracting Authority are not in a position to answer queries marked confidential.